This week in the Civil War | The Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate surrender at Vicksburg

A Confederate army invading the North under Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Union Army of the Potomac led by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade collided over three blazing summer days at Gettysburg 150 years ago this week in the Civil War.

The July 1-3 battle on Pennsylvania farmland would mark the turning point of the war as the Union claimed its biggest victory, repulsing Lee’s second incursion into the North.

Gettysburg also would be the bloodiest battle, with about 51,000 casualties, and gave rise to President Abraham Lincoln’s timeless “Gettysburg Address.”

The battle began July 1, 1863, when Lee massed his Army of Northern Virginia at a crossroads at Gettysburg, driving Union defenders back to Cemetery Hill.